Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 3
Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, his positions with the ruling regime, what he offered to Islam, and his wisdom, Part 3
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00:00Biography of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah
00:05Was he suffering from the ruling political system?
00:08His qualities and morals since the emergence of the Islamic message and its spread in the
00:12world.
00:14Part 3
00:15We continue to narrate a stage in the life of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah.
00:21Though he spent much of his life following this school, he renounced blind following
00:25near the end of his life.
00:27His work was most influenced by the sayings and actions of the first three generations
00:31of Muslims, Salaf, which is displayed in his works where he would give preference to their
00:36opinions over those of his contemporaries.
00:39The modern Salafi movement derives its name from these generations.
00:43Ibn Taymiyyah's own relationship, as a religious scholar, with the ruling apparatus was not
00:48always amicable.
00:50It ranged from silence to open rebellion.
00:54On occasions when he shared the same views and aims as the ruling authorities his contributions
00:58were welcomed, but when Ibn Taymiyyah went against the status quo, he was seen as incooperative
01:04and on occasions spent much time in prison.
01:07Ibn Taymiyyah's attitude towards his own rulers was based on the actions of Muhammad's companions
01:12when they made an oath of allegiance to him as follows.
01:15To obey with an obedience to God, even if the one giving the order is unjust.
01:20To abstain from disputing the authority of those who exert it, and to speak out the truth
01:25or take up its cause without fear in respect of God, of blame from anyone.
01:31Ibn Taymiyyah was a religious scholar as well as an Islamic political activist.
01:36In his efforts he was persecuted and imprisoned on six occasions with the total time spent
01:40inside prison coming to over six years.
01:44Other sources say that he spent over twelve years in prison.
01:47His detentions were due to the pushback from the clerical establishment of the Mamluk Sultanate,
01:52who opposed certain elements of his creed and his views on some jurisprudential issues.
01:57However, according to Yahya Misho, the real reasons were more trivial.
02:03Misho stated five reasons as to why Ibn Taymiyyah was imprisoned by the Mamluk government, they
02:08being not complying with the doctrines and practices prevalent among powerful religious
02:13and Sufi establishments, an overly outspoken personality, the jealousy of his peers, the
02:18risk to public order due to this popular appeal and political intrigues.
02:23Baber Johansen stated that the reasons for Ibn Taymiyyah's incarcerations were, as a
02:28result of his conflicts with Muslim mystics, jurists, and theologians, who were able to
02:33persuade the political authorities of the necessity to limit Ibn Taymiyyah's range of
02:37action through political censorship and incarceration.
02:41Ibn Taymiyyah's emergence in the public and political spheres began in 1293 when he was
02:4630 years old, when the authorities asked him to issue a fatwa, legal verdict, on Asif al-Nasrani,
02:52a Christian cleric who was accused of insulting Muhammad.
02:56He accepted the invitation and delivered his fatwa, calling for the man to receive the
03:00death penalty.
03:02Despite the fact that public opinion was very much on Ibn Taymiyyah's side, the governor
03:07of Syria attempted to resolve the situation by asking Asif to accept Islam in return for
03:12his life, to which he agreed.
03:15This resolution was not acceptable to Ibn Taymiyyah who then, together with his followers,
03:20protested against it outside the governor's palace, demanding that Asif be put to death,
03:25on the grounds that any person, Muslim or non-Muslim, who insults Muhammad must be killed.
03:31His unwillingness to compromise, coupled with his attempt to protest against the governor's
03:36actions, resulted in him being punished with a prison sentence, the first of many such
03:40imprisonments which were to come.
03:43The French Orientalist Henri Lauste says that during his incarceration, Ibn Taymiyyah wrote
03:48his first great work, Al-Sarim al-Muslul ala Shatim al-Rasul, The Drawn Sword Against Those
03:54Who Insult the Messenger.
03:56Ibn Taymiyyah, together with the help of his disciples, continued with his efforts against
04:01what he perceived to be un-Islamic practices, and to implement what he saw as his religious
04:06duty of commanding good and forbidding wrong.
04:10Yahya Misho says that some of these incidences included, shaving children's heads, leading
04:15an anti-debauchery campaign in brothels and taverns, hitting an atheist before his public
04:20execution, destroying what was thought to be a sacred rock in a mosque, attacking astrologers
04:25and obliging deviant Sufi sheikhs to make public acts of contrition and adhere to the
04:29Sunnah.
04:31Ibn Taymiyyah and his disciples used to condemn wine sellers and they would attack wine shops
04:35in Damascus by breaking wine bottles and pouring them onto the floor.
04:39Ibn Taymiyyah and his disciples used to condemn wine sellers and they would attack wine shops
04:44in Damascus by breaking wine bottles and pouring them onto the floor.
04:48A few years later in 1296, he took over the position of one of his teachers, Zayn al-Din
04:54ibn al-Munajjal, taking the post of professor of Hanbali jurisprudence at the Hanbaliya
04:59Madrasa, the oldest such institution of this tradition in Damascus.
05:04This is seen by some to be the peak of his scholarly career.
05:08The year when he began his post at the Hanbaliya Madrasa was a time of political turmoil.
05:14A few years later in 1296, he took over the position of one of his teachers, Zayn al-Din
05:20ibn al-Munajjal, taking the post of professor of Hanbali jurisprudence at the Hanbaliya
05:25Madrasa, the oldest such institution of this tradition in Damascus.
05:30This is seen by some to be the peak of his scholarly career.
05:34The year when he began his post at the Hanbaliya Madrasa was a time of political turmoil.
05:40The Mamluk Sultan al-Adil Kitbuga was deposed by his vice-sultan al-Malik al-Mansur Lajan
05:45who then ruled from 1297 to 1299.
05:49Lajan desired to commission an expedition against the Christians of the Armenian Kingdom
05:54of Cilicia who formed an alliance with the Mongol Empire and participated in the military
05:58campaign which lead to the destruction of Baghdad, the capital of the Abbasid Caliphate,
06:03and the destruction of Haran, the birthplace of Ibn Taymiyyah.
06:06For that purpose, he urged Ibn Taymiyyah to call the Muslims to jihad.
06:11In 1298, Ibn Taymiyyah wrote his explanation for the Ayat al-Mutashabiyyat, the unclear
06:17verses of the Qur'an, titled al-Baqout'aqadat al-Hamawat al-Kubra, the creed of the great
06:23people of Hama.
06:25The book is about divine attributes and it served as an answer to a question from the
06:29city of Hama, Syria.
06:31At that particular time, Assyrites held prominent positions within the Islamic scholarly community
06:36in both Syria and Egypt, and they held a certain position on the divine attributes of God.
06:42Ibn Taymiyyah in his book strongly disagreed with their views and this heavy opposition
06:47to the common Ash'ari position caused considerable controversy.
06:52Once more, Ibn Taymiyyah collaborated with the Mamluks in 1300, when he joined the punitive
06:57expedition against the Alawites and Shiites, in the Khasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains.
07:03Ibn Taymiyyah believed that the Alawites were more heretical than Jews and Christians, and
07:08according to Carol Hillenbrand, the confrontation with the Alawites occurred because they were
07:12accused of collaborating with Christians and Mongols.
07:16Ibn Taymiyyah had further active involvements in campaigns against the Mongols and their
07:20alleged Alawite allies.
07:23In 1305, Ibn Taymiyyah took part in a second military offensive against the Alawites and
07:29the Ismāʿīli, in the Khasrawan region of the Lebanese mountains where they were defeated.
07:36I stop at this point today.
07:39Until next time, stay curious.
07:42Stay informed, and keep exploring the world's incredible stories.
07:47Soon we will publish part 4.